April 4, 2008
Posted by Lisa Jarvis on April 4, 2008 in 2008 Spring National Meeting
The ACS Spring National Meeting (what I like to describe to my nonscientist friends as the Super Bowl of Chemistry) is nigh. As I type this post, ACS staffers are tying up loose ends, packing bags, and catching planes to New Orleans. A slew of C&EN editors will be milling about town, so look for plenty of coverage in upcoming issues and breaking news on C&EN’s homepage. And, of course, the C&ENtral Science team will be out in full effect, with an eye on the quirkier side of chemistry happening in and around the meeting (and I’m not just talking about those test tube shots they pass out on Bourbon Street). So tune in daily and feel free to give us a heads up about sessions or events you’d like to see covered. Same theory applies for local fun; we’ll never turn down a recommendation of a good jazz club, thoughts on where to get the best Sazerac, or which celebrity chef makes the perfect bread pudding.
See you in the Big Easy!
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Posted by Ivan Amato on April 4, 2008 in Chemistry is Everywhere
Chemistry is everywhere in everyday ways, but it takes an act of will for most people to keep that in mind. This is true even for some of us whose business it is to think about chemistry in our lives. I have been making it a practice to notice where chemistry is present but not acknowledged, and I intermittently foist these little observations of chemistry onto my colleagues in carpet-bomb e-mail memos, partly as suggestions for stories that we could do here at C&EN. Here are a few of those missives:
On Feb. 11, 2008, I wrote:
There’s been news recently about Mexican drug cartels using submarines and submersibles to smuggle tons of cocaine worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the U.S. Last year, I spoke with a former DEA official who told me that cocaine cartels have used chemists to do things like incorporate cocaine within the shells of PVC pipes and the like. My guess is that there is a whole list of chemistry-involved and materials-related innovations that drug smugglers have come up with.
On Aug. 7, 2007, I wrote:
The tragedy of the Minnesota bridge collapse is bringing lots of talk of metal fatigue and material failure into the news. Although corrosion, a chemical process through and through, does not at the moment appear to be a primary cause, it is a huge infrastructure issue. A timely way into a corrosion story would be to contact the inspection, forensic, and failure analysis teams that now are descending on Minneapolis-St. Paul and find those members who are paying attention to corrosion. Then generalize from there to a story that shows the extent of corrosion phenomena out there, how well or poorly the chemistry underlying them is understood, and what steps are being taken to mitigate the problem. I think there even are blood diseases that are, at their basis, corrosion of the iron in hemoglobin.
(more…)
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Posted by Lisa Jarvis on April 4, 2008 in Chemistry is Everywhere
Botox: the price of looking good? Radiolabelling studies say disrupted nerve signalling. New Scientist
Ten tips for building a better lab website. The Scientist
Zapped: Food writer Harold McGee explores the secrets of the microwave. NY Times
Blame tin whiskers for your next computer meltdown. The Guardian
Sanofi-Aventis looks to partner with labs in China. WSJ (sub req’d)
Laying bets: which diseases assays offer the best odds? In the Pipeline
Indian government looks to protect the IP on natural products. Economic Times
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